24 BULLETIN 999, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
self-sufficient is necessary. This will reserve the income for payment 
of debts and for necessary purchases. 
So far as possible credit should be extended to farmers to enable 
them to continue to farm in an orderly but conservative manner. 
During a period of rising prices all the channels of trade tend to be 
fully stocked. Every one tends to buy in advance of his needs. 
Credit needs are large for the wholesale manufacturing and retail 
agencies. Farmers then need the minimum of credit because they 
can sell readily. When prices are falling, the tendency to buy for 
immediate needs only, forces farmers to hold large quantities of 
produce while waiting for a market. The sudden shift of credit needs 
accentuated the agricultural panic. While there are likely to be 
years of rising prices,, with the resulting tendency to store in cities, 
the general tendency for some years will probably be in the direction 
of requiring the farmers or primary purchasers of farm products to 
do more of the necessary holding. The tendency to falling prices, 
uncertainties as to prices, the poverty of Europe, and uncertainties 
as to exchange are likely to contribute to this general result. For 
this reason the subject of agricultural credit is of more than usual 
importance. So much of the farm credit is of long duration that 
more of it should be furnished as investments, rather than from 
bank credit. The experience of the past year has accentuated this 
principle. Farmers who had mortgage payments due this year that 
were financed from bank credit often found difficulty in obtaining 
renewals, because the deposits had been withdrawn, from the banks. 
But land bank mortgages financed as investments have caused little 
trouble either to the owner of the bonds or the farmer. Many agri- 
cultural enterprises are of so long duration that it is also desirable 
that part of the personal credit be financed as investments rather 
than have so large a part of it financed from deposits or furnished 
by retailers who depend on short-time credit. 
Since farm products are so, very cheap, it would seem desirable to 
increase the supply of live stock. Surplus crops stored in growing 
animals are a good risk. There is at least a fair chance that the 
animals will sell when feed is more valuable. 
Until Russia again becomes an exporting nation the outlook for 
the export of wheat and rye is apparently more favorable than for 
most other farm products. 
Ample supplies of grain and hay should be held on farms in each 
year of excessive production. More attention should be given to 
the storage and financing of crops in years when the weather is 
unusually favorable so that the unexpected production which is often 
a calamity to the farmers may be used to supplement short crops 
that are now almost equally injurious to industry. 
